Great Novels In Settings All Over the World:

India

Layla, a young woman raised in both the United States and Hyderabad India, is on the eve of her arranged wedding to a young man she has never met, the son of a longtime friend of her mother's family. But Layla has a secret; she is pregnant by her American lover. Her new husband also has a secret and refuses to consummate the marriage. Sensitive writing and luminous prose grace this story about a young woman assimilated as an American, finding herself as a young wife in India, struggling to please her family and new husband, and yet also retain her individuality and personal freedom, in a culture where women's lives are tightly controlled and problems, shrouded in secrecy, cannot be dealt with, as honor of the family must be preserved above all other values.